by Jillo Kadida, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - Each morning a 35-year-old Zimbabwean refugee wheels his young disabled sister to the city centre. He parks her wheelchair at a busy intersection and they start begging for money and food.

by Maude Barlow, Ecological Options Network, USA - At Klimaforum 09 in Copenhagen Council of Canadians founder and Special UN Advisor on Water Maude Barlow talks about the planetary water crisis, the fight for the soul of the UN General Assembly and what to do about it.

by Lansana Fofana, IPS, Italy - A new police force plan to recruit youths in each community, to help fight the country-wide spate of armed robbery, has provoked controversy and sparked a nationwide debate.

by Kate Harding, Broadsheet, USA - A blogger finds success after pulling a Bronte and publishing under a male pseudonym.

by Thin Lei Win, Thomson Reuters Foundation & IFRC, UK - The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami killed 226,000 people - and touched billions more through iconic imagery. But from the tragedy came stories of hope, compassion and dignity.

by Barbara Schieber, Guatemala News, Guatemala - The law abiding citizens who collaborate with the justice system to apprehend criminals become victims of these criminals when they are released. In desperation people start to take justice into their own hands.

by Tara McKelvey, Boston Review, USA - The political fallout from the Iraq war and the government’s failure to care for its veterans has been far-reaching.

by Caryle Murphy, The National, United Arab Emirates - She wears pink and green head scarves. She calls Saudi Arabia a “prison” for women. She writes, and talks, and protests. But nothing changes.

by Marianne de Nazareth, Common Currents, India - I am losing my home land -- my island is slowly sinking and because of the rise in sea levels my people are moving from one island to the next.

by Misha Hussain, Dawn, Pakistan - Young Bangladeshis know they are independent, but have yet to feel liberated from their past.

by Susanne Koelbl, Spiegel, Germany - The German-ordered bombing in Kunduz left behind dozens of widows and orphans. Now, survivors and relatives of the dead are looking for compensation. Some, though, worry that the money will fall into the hands of the Taliban.

by Heidi Elisabeth Sandnes, Kilden, Norway - Scandinavian parents have no doubt that the state is responsible for providing day care centres for children from the age of one.

by Andrea Thompson, Live Science, USA - Tiny particles of pollution known as "black carbon" — and not heat-trapping greenhouse gases — may be causing most of the rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, a key water source for much of Asia.

by Madeleine Bunting, Guardian, UK - Copenhagen must face up to the decade lost in curbing volatile finances, corporate power and the pillage of resources.

by Naomi Chazan, Jerusalem Post, Israel - For close to 10 years Egged, Israel's public transportation company, has been running gender segregated lines not only on buses that go through haredi neighborhoods, but also on intercity routes.

by Grace Nasri, Asia Times, China - Behind the neo-cons' newfound concern for human-rights and democracy promotion in Iran lies an agenda not of behavior or even regime change, but system change in the Islamic Republic - a change that could potentially allow the West increased control over a strategically located and oil-rich country.

by Mary Lou Hartman, Washington Post, USA - Despite international attention, including visits from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.N. officials, and a recent "60 Minutes" report, Congo remains the most dangerous place on Earth for girls and women.

by Louise Gray,Telegraph, UK - Poor countries have demanded that the US spends as much on tackling climate change as it does on warfare.

by Natalia Antelava, BBC, UK - More than six-and-a-half years after the invasion, the body count has become a measure of success and failure in Iraq.

by Dalila Mahdawi, Daily Star, Lebanon - Women’s economic marginalization and vulnerability to violence is hindering development in the Arab world, UN and civil society officials said Friday.

by Victoria Ibanga, Champion, Nigeria - The benefits of Family planning cannot be under-estimated. It is, among other things, key in development, and, above all, in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5.

by Michelle Chen, Race Wire, USA - Across the artificially imposed borders of this hemisphere, indigenous communities came together in April to demand that the Obama administration take on an American Declaration of indigenous people's rights.